1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to the packaging of medicines, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for sealing pharmaceutical unit dose packages of pills or capsules.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
It is often desired to seal a well-known pharmaceutical unit dose pill package. Such unit dose packages typically have first and second cardboard layers with a plurality of oversize aligned cutouts through each layer. A layer of plastic having a plurality of blisters is placed against and laminated to the first cardboard layer with the blisters extending through the cutouts in that layer, and pills or capsules are placed within the blisters. A layer of foil is laminated to the second layer, and a peel-off backing is then removed from the foil to expose an adhesive surface upon the foil. The adhesive surface is then used to bond the first and second cardboard layers into a sandwich, thereby entrapping the pills within the blisters and creating the sealed unit dose pill package. It should be understood that this method of sealing the unit dose packages is different from so-called "heat sealed" packages, in which a heated glue is used to seal the packages. The well-known unit dose packages used with the present invention have no heated glue or melting of package portions together during sealing, but instead utilize the peel-off adhesive backing to expose an adhesive surface that is then used to seal the package layers together in a so-called "cold-sealing" process that can be used in local pharmacies.
However, to achieve a reliable sealing of the unit dose packages, significant pressure needs to be applied to cause the adhesive backing to bond the layers of the package together.
Heretofore, well-known so-called "rubber cork" sealing trays, such as the one shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings, were used to hold a unit dose package during sealing while a manual roller, such as a household rolling pin or a hand-held rubber roller, was rolled over the package, sealing the layers of the package by compressing them against the sealing tray.
Drug Package, Inc., 901 Drug Package Lane, O'Fallon, Mo., is known to make such a well-known sealing tray, similar to that shown in FIG. 1, having compartments for receiving the pill blisters of a pharmaceutical unit dose package. The sealing tray is made of a resilient material such as so-called "rubber cork", and the plurality of compartments are spaced for aligned receipt of the blisters of the unit dose package. Pills or capsules are placed within the blisters, an adhesive backing is removed from one of the cardboard layers of the unit dose package, the cardboard layer is placed against the blisters, and the package is sealed by pressing a roller against the package and sandwiching the layers together, thereby causing the adhesive to seal the package. Drug Package, Inc., is also known to make a such a unit dose package suitable for use with the present invention, sold under the trademark MEDI-AID.
Health Care Logistics, Inc., P.O. Box 25, Circleville, Ohio 43113-0025, is known to market a pharmaceutical unit dose starter kit, HCL item number 7081, under the trademark HIGH BARRIER, as shown on page 12 of a 1991 catalog entitled HCL General Store. This starter kit includes a hand-operated roller having a short handle attached to a small rubber roller, so that a user can place a unit dose package atop a well-known "rubber cork" sealing tray, then manually roll the rubber roller over the unit dose package to seal pills within the unit dose package.
This manual sealing of the pharmaceutical unit dose packages though, is time consuming and exhausting for pharmacists. Furthermore, the manual use of rollers to seal the packages often produces less than optimal results, i.e., incomplete or poor sealing of the packages.
It is therefore desirable to have an apparatus and method for "cold-sealing" pharmaceutical unit dose packages that avoids such manual labor and that produces more uniform results in a more expedient manner than heretofore possible with the prior art.
A preliminary patentability search in Class 206, subclass 531, and Class 100, subclasses 155, 156, 173, and 210, produced the following patents, some of which may be relevant to the present invention: Langer, U.S. Pat. No. 2,834,456, issued May 13, 1958; Hellstrom, U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,367, issued Oct. 14, 1969; Farrell et all, U.S. Pat. No. 3,855,917, issued Dec. 24, 1974; Igarashi et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,283, issued Apr. 1, 1975; Wood, U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,531, issued Oct. 2, 1979; Doull, U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,623, issued Mar. 12, 1991; Wick, U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,851, issued May 14, 1991; and Itaya et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,318,824, issued Jun. 7, 1994.
None of these references, either singly or in combination, disclose or suggest the present invention.